


true love's kiss

by starkly



Series: you don't have to do this alone [16]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, M/M, Married Characters, Multi, Temporary Amnesia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 13:11:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13435416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starkly/pseuds/starkly
Summary: Tony gets amnesia after a fight and forgets he's married. Twice.





	true love's kiss

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for NaNoWriMo 2017 and posted at [dailyironfamily](http://dailyironfamily.tumblr.com/post/167578383835/day-16-amnesia) on tumblr. This fic was proofread before being posted here but is otherwise unchanged.
> 
> Day sixteen: amnesia. Temporary, of course, and inspired by that video of the dude who gets out of surgery and can’t believe his wife is his wife. There’s also some magic BS. Set in some vague time post current movie canon.

Waking up in the hospital is an unfortunately common occurrence for Tony. He hates the feeling of not knowing where he is or what’s going on, especially when they’ve got him on the good painkillers. That stuff messes with his head, but sometimes it’s necessary after a serious stint in the operating room.

When he wakes up this time, head feeling like it’s stuffed with cotton, there’s someone sitting by his bed, a pretty redhead. He smiles at her, tries to say hi, but his mouth feels like it’s full of cotton too, overly dry and gross.

“Tony! Oh, don’t try to talk, hold on,” the pretty redhead says, noticing his return to the land of the living. She reaches for something out of his field of vision, then brings a plastic cup to his lips, carefully letting him take a sip. “Slowly, you’ve had a rough couple days.”

Tony vaguely remembers what happened, some sort of accident with a giant robot? It dropped a building on him, that was bad. He remembers that. Why doesn’t he remember this nice lady?

“Who’re you?” he asks, getting right to the point. He reaches up and pats her on the hand where she’s still holding the cup close to him.

“Tony?” she repeats, more worried this time. “Do you not remember me?”

“I think I’d remember someone as pretty as you,” he says, totally confident.

She stands up, setting the cup down on the bedside table. “I should get the doctor.”

“No, no, I’m fine! Don’t leave just yet.” He tries to give her his most charming smile, but it comes out sort of lopsided. “What’s your name?”

“It’s Pepper, Tony,” she answers, lingering by the bed as she looks him over. “Remember? Your wife?”

Tony’s eyes go wide with surprise. “What? No way.”

Pepper frowns. “What’s no way?”

“You can’t be my wife, you’re way too hot for me.”

Pepper sighs, rubbing at her temples with both hands. “While I appreciate the sentiment, that’s not how it works. I’m going to get a doctor.”

She opens the door only to find a handsome man in some sort of military uniform standing on the other side. “Rhodey, thank goodness. Watch Tony for me, will you? Something’s definitely wrong.”

The man frowns, looking over at Tony. Tony waves back. “Wrong how?”

“Hello! Have you met my beautiful wife?” Tony asks him, gesturing at Pepper. “Can you believe I’m married to an angel?”

“Okay…” Rhodey says slowly, staring at him. “Either his drugs are way too strong or something happened during that fight.”

Rhodey walks over to sit in the chair Pepper had vacated, his gait slightly off. Tony frowns at that, though he’s not sure why. He’s never met this man before either.

“Tony, do you remember me?” Rhodey asks. Tony hates to disappoint him, but he answers truthfully,

“Not at all. We’re friends?”

“A little more than that,” Rhodey says, glancing back at Pepper.

Tony narrows his eyes at him suspiciously. “I’m married, pal. Apparently.”

“I know.” Rhodey holds up his hand, a silver ring on his finger. Pepper holds up her hand too, showing off a matching ring.

Tony glances down at his own hands, which are bare. “Wait, you’re married to each other?” An odd rush of disappointment sweeps through him, which is weird because he doesn’t really know either of them.

“And you,” Pepper says. Tony stares at her, then over at the unfamiliar man sitting beside his bed. No way he’s that lucky.

“Mine’s solely symbolic,” Rhodey adds with a shrug, dropping his hand back into his lap. “You really don’t remember anything?”

“I remember who I am,” Tony answers after a thoughtful moment of silence. “I know how I ended up in the hospital. I just don’t remember you.”

“Well, this is great. I’ll be right back,” Pepper says, exiting room.

Tony frowns at Rhodey, who’s staring after Pepper’s retreating back. “I’m sorry.”

Rhodey looks back at him in surprise. “What are you sorry for? You didn’t do anything.”

“I got crushed by an evil robot,” Tony replies, even though that’s not what he was apologizing for. “But I’m sorry I’m disappointing you, and Pepper. You seem nice.”

Tentatively, Rhodey reaches out to take Tony’s hand, and Tony lets him. “You’re not disappointing us. We’re just worried.” He squeezes Tony’s hand gently, then adds, “We’ll figure out how to fix this.”

Tony really, really hopes so.

* * *

The doctor tells them everything should be back to normal on its own, but Pepper’s skeptical. What kind of amnesia just fixes itself? But Tony’s as antsy about being in the hospital as he always is, wanting out as soon as possible, so Pepper relents and she and Rhodey escort him home once they get the paperwork out of the way.

“Do you remember this place?” she asks him after they park and enter the mansion.

“Yeah, it’s my folks’ old place,” he answers without hesitation, then frowns. “I live here alone? It’s so big for one person.”

“I live here too,” Pepper says with a sigh. “Rhodey has a room for when he’s in town.”

“Oh, yeah. I keep forgetting.” He looks apologetically at Pepper, who gives him a tense but sympathetic look.

“It’s all right. You get settled, the doctor said you need to rest. I’m going to try contacting Dr. Strange. Maybe he’s got some idea what this is.”

Tony groans, and says, “Not that guy, seriously?” He sees the look Pepper and Rhodey share and promptly shuts his mouth. “I’ll just go sit down now.”

“Go with him, please,” Pepper whispers to Rhodey, and Tony tries not to bristle at the feeling of them thinking he needs a babysitter. If he was married (which he is) and his spouse had suddenly lost all their memories of him, he supposes he’d be freaking out too.

Rhodey follows him to the study on the first floor, where he likes to go when he needs to be alone to think. He goes to stand in front of the bookshelf while Rhodey carefully sits down on the leather couch by the window. Tony watches the way he moves out of the corner of his eye, and asks,

“Something wrong with your legs?”

“Spine, actually,” Rhodey says coolly, and Tony could kick himself. God, partial-amnesiac him is a total asshole. Rhodey continues though, apparently not angry. “You made these braces for me, to help me walk.”

Tony turns away from the shelf. “I did?”

“Yep. Take a look.” He bends down and rolls up one of his pant legs, revealing the metal underneath. Tony walks over, sitting down next to him on the couch.

“I wish I could remember that,” Tony laments, looking at the brace. “Wish I could remember you.”

“Hey, we’ll fix this. Like I said.” Rhodey tugs his pant leg back down, straightening the cuff. “Pepper won’t give up on you and neither will I.”

Tony just nods, staring down at his feet. He wonders what he could have done to make these two so devoted to him. It doesn’t quite seem possible.

* * *

Dr. Strange finally shows up, and Tony definitely remembers him.

“Look, it’s clearly not magic, and he isn’t even a real doctor anymore,” he complains upon seeing him. Strange just completely ignores him, looking back at Pepper and Rhodey.

“And you say he remembers everything except the two of you?” he asks.

Pepper nods. “He remembers places, names, faces, all sorts of things. Just not anything that has to do with us.”

Strange hums thoughtfully and strokes his goatee. “Has anything like this ever happened before?”

Pepper and Rhodey glance at each other, then Rhodey shakes his head. “Once when we were dating he got really drunk and asked if I was single and cried when I told him I wasn’t, but that was just the booze, I think. Otherwise, no.”

“I’ll take a look,” Strange says with a sigh, “but I highly doubt it’s anything magical.”

“It better not be,” Tony mutters, but he sits still so Strange can do his thing. He might complain about it, but he doesn’t want his brain scrambled by accident.

Watching Strange work is always weird, but at least this time it doesn’t hurt. He feels a sort of warm, glowing haze envelop them and he just shuts his eyes and waits for Strange to finish.

When the fuzziness vanishes, he doesn’t feel any different. Cracking open an eye, he looks at Pepper and Rhodey, who’re standing behind Dr. Strange looking anxious. Still no recognition.

“Nothing happened,” he says, scowling.

“That’s because it’s not done,” Strange sniffs. “I was able to nudge you in the right direction, but the final step must be taken by the three of you.”

“Well, what is it?” Tony asks, impatient, and Strange looks at Pepper and Rhodey.

“You must do something to jog his memory. Something sensory, primal.”

The three of them are silent for a moment. Then, Rhodey says, incredulous,

“Is this some true love’s kiss kind of situation? Seriously?”

“A kiss could potentially work,” Strange agrees, nodding.

“No point arguing about it,” Pepper huffs, pushing past him to get to Tony. Strange takes a surprised step back, cloak swishing irritably around him. “Sorry about this.”

Tony wants to say why apologize for kissing him, but he’s too busy kissing back to actually talk. It’s regrettably brief; Pepper has very soft lips and he kind of wants to kiss her forever. But then she’s pulling back and then motioning for Rhodey to take his turn, and Tony happily kisses him too. This has got to be the weirdest but most agreeable solution to a problem he thinks he’s ever had.

Rhodey keeps his kiss brief as well, and then everyone’s staring at him, waiting. Tony still doesn’t feel anything, no big revelation, and he frowns and says,

“So what’s supposed to hap―son of a gun!” It’s kind of like a jolt to the brain, and he glares at Strange. “You did that on purpose.”

Strange just sighs a long-suffering sigh and says, “You’re welcome.”

“For what? Electrocuting me? Oh.” He turns to Pepper and Rhodey, eyes wide as he realizes he knows who they are. “I don’t care how that worked or what you did unless there’s a proper scientific explanation, but. Thanks.”

Strange nods. “Good evening, gentlemen. Mrs. Potts.” His cape flicks out behind him and he’s gone in a shower of orange sparks.

“I can’t believe you just kissed my amnesia away,” he says, closing the gap between the three of them and pulling Pepper and Rhodey into a tight hug.

“Not the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to us,” Pepper says, hugging him back, while Rhodey presses a kiss to the side of his head. “We were worried about you.”

“Guess we owe Strange a fruit basket or something,” Tony grumbles.

Rhodey just laughs and knocks him lightly on the shoulder. “Come on, the guy saved us a ton of trouble. Be a little grateful.”

“Oh, before I forget!” Pepper scurries over to her purse, digging around in a couple of the pockets before finding what she’s looking for and returning to the circle. She takes Tony’s hand, then reverently slips his silver wedding ring onto his finger.

Tony flexes his fingers, watching the metal glint in the light. It feels good to have it on his finger again, where it belongs. And with Pepper and Rhodey at his side, he’s right where he belongs too.


End file.
